Device for coating with breadcrumbs

ABSTRACT

A device for coating food products with granular material, for example breadcrumb material, comprises a rotating conveyor belt which is permeable to the granular material and on which the food products can be held, guide plates which extend beneath at least a section of the top part and the bottom part of the conveyor belt, a feed, which opens out above the top part of the conveyor belt, for the granular material, a diverter for guiding the granular material from the top part to the bottom part of the conveyor belt and back, as well as a conveyor for conveying granular material from the top part of the conveyor belt to the feed. A selection device to which granular material is fed from the top part of the conveyor belt is situated between the top part and the bottom part of the conveyor belt, via which selection device the selected granular material is fed to the bottom part of the conveyor belt.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/150,297 filed Sep. 9,1998 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,760, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The invention relates to a device for coating food products withgranular material, for example breadcrumb material, comprising arotating conveyor belt which is permeable to the granular material andon which the food products can be held, guide plates which extendbeneath a section of the top part and the bottom part of the conveyorbelt, a feed, which opens out above the top part of the conveyor belt,for the granular material, diverter means for guiding the granularmaterial from the top part to the bottom part of the conveyor belt andback, as well as conveyor means for conveying granular material from thetop part of the conveyor belt to the feed.

An invention of this nature is known from EP-B-397,267 and U.S. Pat. No.3,759,218. In the first known device, the bottom part is guided along anS-shaped path in which there is incorporated a buffer with an overflow,via which some of the granular material is conveyed upwards and back toa storage hopper which opens out above the top part of the conveyorbelt.

The granular material comprises a mixture of relatively fine andrelatively coarse constituents. The relatively fine constituents sinkdownwards more quickly than the relatively coarse constituents, with theresult that during the conveyance of the said material segregation canoccur, so that separate layers containing relatively fine and relativelycoarse material are formed.

As a result, it is not always readily possible to coat the products inthe correct way. For example, it may be desirable to coat the productswith relatively coarse material on the top side or the visible side.However, if the relatively fine constituents reach the products first,the adhesion of the relatively coarse constituents is then impaired. Theknown device has the drawback that the coating process cannot becontrolled in the desired way.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is therefore to provide a device of the typementioned above in which the distribution of relatively fine andrelatively coarse constituents of the coating material can be controlledbetter. This object is achieved by the fact that a selection means fordividing the granular material into a relatively fine fraction and arelatively coarse fraction is situated between the top part and thebottom part of the conveyor belt, to which selection means the granularmaterial is fed from the top part of the conveyor belt, via whichselection means the relatively fine fraction of the granular material isfed to the bottom part of the conveyor belt and the relatively coarsefraction of the granular material is fed to the conveyor means.

The granular material originating from the top part of the conveyor beltis selected in such a manner that, for example, the relatively fineconstituents pass onto the bottom part of the conveyor belt and therelatively coarse parts pass into the conveyor means (screens). Via thediverter means, the relatively fine constituents are moved onto the toppart of the conveyor belt. The consequence is that the products come tolie on a layer of screened, relatively fine material. The relativelycoarse constituents which have been conveyed upwards by the conveyormeans are used for coating the products on the top side.

Another advantage is that not all the material, but rather only therelatively coarse material, is conveyed to the top part of the conveyorbelt by the conveyor means. The total volume of material to be conveyedconsequently remains limited, so that the capacity of the conveyor meanscan remain relatively low and the material itself does not crumble tosuch an extent.

Reference is made to the device which is known from U.S. Pat. No.4,333,415. This known device also has a conveyor means which, however,conveys the total volume of material to the top part. The material isonly screened above the said top part.

The selection means according to the invention may comprise a screenplate which is provided with screen openings, which screen plate isconnected to the guide plate which extends beneath the top part of theconveyor belt. This screen plate extends downwards at an angle from theguide plate which extends beneath the top part of the conveyor belt.

The division between relatively fine and relatively coarse parts whichis obtained during screening by means of the screen plate depends on thenature, size and orientation of the screen openings. A differentdivision will generally also be desirable for different products. In thedevice according to the invention, this division can be adapted in asimple manner if the screen plate is of exchangeable design. Therefore,a set of exchangeable plates, each with their own pattern of openings,belongs to the device, in order to effect a specific desired division.

The screen plate may, for example, have slots which run transversely tothe direction of transport of the conveyor belt for allowing throughfine granular material. The relatively fine material falls through thetransversely positioned slots, while the relatively coarse materialslides over the slots. A screen plate of this nature is then alsoeminently suitable for separating relatively coarse and relatively fineconstituents to a substantial extent.

According to a further option, the selection plate may have longitudinalslots for essentially allowing the granular material to pass through inthe unscreened state. A selection plate of this nature is suitable forcontrolling the distribution of the total quantity, of material over thetop side and bottom side of the products to be coated.

It is also possible to design a selection plate with both sorts ofopenings, in such a manner that a moderate level of division isobtained.

The results relating to coating the food products by meads of the deviceaccording to the invention can be improved still further if theselection means is connected to a buffer for collecting the selectedmaterial, which buffer has a discharge which opens out above the bottompart of the conveyor belt. The discharge of the buffer may be ofadjustable size.

Depending on the type of screen plate, the relatively fine material maybe collected in the buffer. Depending on the size of discharge openingwhich is set, a more or less thick layer of coating material is obtainedas the bottom layer on which the food products to be coated are to beplaced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to anumber of exemplary embodiments which are illustrated in the figures, inwhich:

FIG. 1 shows a side view, in cross-section, of the device according tothe invention.

FIG. 2 shows a detail in accordance with II of FIG. 1, in perspectiveview.

FIG. 3 shows a first alternative screen plate.

FIG. 4 shows a second alternative screen plate.

FIG. 5 shows detail II on a larger scale, as well as the screeningeffect.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The device which is illustrated in FIG. 1 for coating food products witha granular material, such as breadcrumbs, comprises a frame 1, in whichthe open conveyor belt, which is indicated by dot-dashed lines and ismade from wire material, is guided around rollers 3. The conveyor belt 2has a top part 4, beneath which a top guide plate 5 extends;furthermore, the conveyor belt 2 has a bottom part 6, beneath which abottom guide plate 7 extends.

The direction of rotation of the conveyor belt 2 is to the right in FIG.1, as indicated by arrows. At the left-hand end, in FIG. 1, of theconveyor belt 2, the bottom guide plate 7 merges into a diverter plate 8which lies at a lower level than the bottom guide plate 7 and runs in acurve around the corresponding roller 3. The granular material which issupported on the bottom guide plate 7 is carried along by the conveyorbelt 2 which is inherently permeable to the material, and via thediverter plate 8 is fed to the right over the top guide plate 5. On theleft-hand section of the top guide plate 5, the food products 9 aremoved onto the layer of coating material which has already been formed.The food products 9 emanate from a further conveyor belt which is notshown.

The products 9 then pass beneath the outlet 10 of the storage hopper,which is denoted overall by 11, where a further quantity of granularmaterial is positioned on the top side of the food products 9.

As the top part 4 of the conveyor belt 2 moves further to the right, theproducts 9, which are now fully coated, are removed and the granularmaterial falls through the conveyor belt 2 onto the screen plate, whichis denoted overall by 12. As illustrated in FIGS. 2, 3 and 5, thisscreen plate has a large number of slots 13 running in the transversedirection. The relatively coarse constituents 14 of the granularmaterial are not able to fall down through these slots 13, with theresult that they are removed via the bottom end or overflow 15.

The relatively fine parts 16 of the material can pass through theopenings 13, after which they pass into the buffer, which is denotedoverall by 17. In this buffer 17, which is covered at the top by thescreen plate 12, a quantity of relatively fine parts 16 collects as afunction of the position of slide 18 which covers the discharge opening19 of the buffer 17 to a greater or lesser extent. Depending on the sizeof this opening, a layer of granular material comprising relatively fineparts 16 is formed on the bottom part 6 of the conveyor belt, assupported by the bottom guide plate 7.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the relatively coarse material passes, via theoverflow 15 and a lateral guide 20, into a sleeve 21 in which there is ascrew conveyor 22. By means of this screw conveyor 22, the material ispumped upwards to an opening 23 in the top section of the storage hopper1, in such a manner that the said material can then be applied onceagain to the top side of the products 9.

Since the material is already screened before it passes into sleeve 21,only the material which has been removed via the screen plate 12 and itsoverflow 15 has to be pumped upwards. The total quantity of material tobe pumped round consequently remains limited, with the result that theconveyor device 20, 21 can be of less substantial design and also thecrumbling effect remains limited.

As shown in FIG. 2, the screen plate 12 can be pushed backwards andforwards across the buffer 17. Therefore, the screen plate 12 can easilybe pushed laterally away in a simple manner over the upright walls 24,25 of the buffer 17.

The screen plate 26 shown in FIG. 3 can also be used instead of thescreen plate 12 shown in FIG. 2. In addition to slots 13 running in thetransverse direction, this screen plate 26 also has slots 27 running inthe longitudinal direction. The slots 27 are sufficiently wide for allthe material, even the relatively coarse parts, to fall down throughthem. There is no screening action in this case, but rather the materialis divided into a fraction which is fed to the bottom part 6 of theconveyor belt 2 and a fraction which is fed to the conveyor device 20,21 and then, via the hopper 11, to the top part 4.

However, the slots 13 which run in the transverse direction still ensuresome level of screening activity, so that the fraction of relativelyfine material which passes onto the bottom part 6 of the conveyor belt 2is still greater than average, but less than in the case of the screenplate shown in FIG. 2.

In the case of the plates 28 shown in FIG. 4, only the slots 27 whichrun in the longitudinal direction are used, so that in that case thereis no screening activity whatsoever.

Plate 28 is used if the material has to be split into two streams, onefor the bottom part 6 and one for the top part 4 of the belt, asexplained above with reference to FIG. 3.

What is claimed is:
 1. Device for coating food products (9) withgranular material, comprising: a rotating conveyor belt (2) which ispermeable to the granular material and operative to hold food products;guide plates (5, 7) which extend beneath at least a section of a toppart (4) and a bottom part (6) of the conveyor belt (2); a feed (10),which opens out above the top part (4) of the conveyor belt, for thegranular material; diverter means (8) for guiding the granular materialfrom the top part (4) to the bottom part (6) of the conveyor belt (2)and back (4); and conveyor means (20, 21) for conveying granularmaterial from the top part (4) of the conveyor belt (2) to the feed(10), wherein a divider plate (28) with longitudinal slots (27) fordividing the granular material in the unscreened state is situatedbetween the top part (4) and the bottom part (6) of the conveyor belt(2), and wherein the granular material is fed from the top part (4) ofthe conveyor belt (2) to the divider plate (28).
 2. Device according toclaim 1, wherein the divider plate (28) is connected to a buffer (17)for collecting the selected material.
 3. Device according to claim 2,wherein the buffer (17) has a discharge (19) which opens out above thebottom part (6) of the conveyor belt (2).
 4. Device according to claim3, wherein the discharge (19) has an opening of adjustable size.